Has anyone experienced/or are currently in a 12 hour time zone difference situation?

[Honeycomb8]

How do you manage it?

 

I might have to deal with that soon. Comtemplating it. I know it's a very sobering experience.

[lucrux]

I'm currently in a 7 hour difference timezone, it's nothing compared to yours but sometimes you guys have to sacrifice a few hours just to talk/video with one another. If you really like your significant other, I think putting effort into this would be really worth it and of course beneficial in the long-term. I wish you guys nothing but the best!

[Clarisse]

My SO and I were in a LDR for about a year and a half. He was working in Africa and I am here in the states. We saw each other about every 6-7 weeks for a week at a time. It was not easy. He's now back home and we live together quite happily.

 

To make it work, you need:

1. Consistent communication. We used Facebook IM, email and Skype. We would have used snail mail as well had it not been virtually impossible in Africa.

2. Quality of conversation, meaning intimacy/emotional connection, is even more important that quantity.

3. A schedule of when your next visit will be so that you have something to look forward to.

4. A long term plan as to when you will live in the same town.

 

I could always sense a distance when the quality of our conversations began to decline. It takes work to maintain emotional connectedness. When either of us felt that happening, we would increase our skype time, and also, would find ways to increase the depth of our conversations. It's more than "how was your day?" You need to have deep conversations in order to really know and understand each other.

 

Hope that helps.

[vesper]

Yep, we get limited time to talk we mostly leave each other messages but otherwise talk between 5-12 and 5-12. Also sometimes we don't sleep whilst talking.